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Saying Hello... And a Word About the Cause of Human Dignity

As you may have heard, I recently joined the American Bar Association as the
Associate Executive Director for Global Programs after almost four years as a
senior fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. In this new role, I will
direct ABA’s global Rule
of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI), oversee the ABA’s
Center for Human Rights (CHR), and coordinate the ABA’s relationship with
the United Nations. To me, this set of challenges is the perfect way for me
to help realize the aspiration we all share: that of defending human dignity
by fostering freedom under the rule of law.

My journey to the ABA started when I was young. Many of my
earliest childhood memories taught me lessons about a government’s ability to
impose cruelty and damage its citizens. I am the son of a Hungarian mother
and Cuban father who were exiled, collectively, three times. Although I was
born in Boston, my childhood was spent in Cuba. The earliest memory I can
date was also my first lesson in injustice and human suffering. I was four
years old and seated on the floor of my parents’ bedroom at our house in
Havana watching mother straighten up the room; the radio was reporting the
news of the fighting in Budapest as Soviet forces intervened to crush the
Hungarian Revolution. As mother silently and methodically went about the
chore of straightening up the bed linens, tears were streaming down her face.
That first lesson in suffering was quickly followed by a second as the joy
experienced by my family at the triumph of the Cuban Revolution converted to
the trauma of exile when the revolution turned to tyranny rather than the
promised democracy. My father would never see his father or his country
again, two wounds which never healed in him.

The lessons I took from these experiences were lessons about
human happiness and dignity and how, in the end, both can pivot on the
recognition — or not — of human rights under the rule of law. These lessons
crystallized early. They shaped my view of my duties as an American citizen
and influenced my decisions to enter the legal profession and to pursue a
career that included a large measure of public service. More than 40 years
after first making those decisions, the pride I have always felt as a lawyer and
former public servant derives from the fact that the nation we serve and the
laws that define us are grounded on the core principle of defending human
dignity, always. This is, quite simply, who we are and what we do.

This is why on 9/11, while serving in the Pentagon as General
Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Navy, I would not have wished to have
been anywhere else other than supporting our Navy and Marine Corps as they
deployed forward to defend our country. And this is why I felt privileged, too,
at being able to participate in the internal Pentagon debates on detainee
interrogation and detention policies and to be able to challenge the legality
and wisdom of decisions that authorized the use of torture against real or
suspected enemies and then sought to ensure that those responsible would not
be held accountable. For me and the many other military officers and civilian
officials who opposed such abuses, this was another way of defending our
country.

Since World War II, the cause of freedom and human dignity has
made great advances overall. In our country alone, the level of legal and
social discrimination against African-Americans and other minorities, women,
and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) individuals has
been greatly reduced. Still, as the U.S. decision to use torture and our
continuing failure to come to grips with the consequences of that decision
demonstrate, the maintenance of our human rights and of the rule of law is
neither a linear process nor guaranteed. The increase in the harassment of
and discrimination against Muslim individuals and communities and the current
rise in hostility towards refugees are further evidence of this.

That’s why I’m delighted to join ABA ROLI and the Center for
Human Rights, which have been promoting justice, economic opportunity, and
human dignity through the rule of law for almost 30 years around the world.
ABA ROLI currently has programs in more than 50 countries in Africa, Asia and
the Pacific, Europe and Eurasia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the
Middle East and North Africa working to strengthen governance and the justice
sector, improve human rights and access to justice, mitigate conflict, and
ensure inclusive and sustainable development. Representing the ABA’s vast
membership of more than 400,000 attorneys and judges, ABA ROLI and CHR are
well positioned to help the ABA accomplish its core mission of protecting the
rule of law at home and abroad.

Today, the challenge to protect human dignity through the
advancement of human rights, the rule of law, and our democratic principles
is more compelling than ever. ABA ROLI and CHR are recommitted to this
undertaking, and we look forward to working together with you in the service
of our shared values.